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Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn

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Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn

#111

Post by kelnos »

teekert wrote: post #98
jsheard wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PoW crypto is an exercise in finding new ways to spin boiling the oceans as actually being productive.

Electricity net controllers here are pretty happy when I boil some ocean on a sunny day. In fact at times they give me money for it. And then I can donate sats to indie content creators using podcasting 2.0 features. But I think you are one of those people that threw out that baby with the bath water long ago.

The kind of use you describe is almost certainly a small minority of the whole.

Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn

#112

Post by ffsm8 »

kneel wrote: post #105
arcanemachiner wrote: post #90

Looks like the coins were stolen by a bot: > https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1306983.msg64535839#... I'm not super familiar with the concept (and I'm too lazy to look into it TBH), but I think the would-be winner posted the private key before enough (any?) blocks were mined, and the thief posted a transaction with a bigger fee, and the thief's transaction was in the block that got mined.

That's not how bitcoin works

Feel free to click on the link.

Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn

#113

Post by kelnos »

commodoreboxer wrote: post #53
amelius wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't we come up with puzzles where at least something of value is created when the puzzle is solved (and a tremendous amount of resources is not wasted)?

We can and do, all the time. And all puzzles are a "waste of resources", really. I'm not into crypto and I do think Bitcoin is stupid and wasteful, but I don't find it "sick" or all what upsetting that this kind of puzzle exists, though I think some smart contract-based Ethereum puzzles could be much more interesting, demanding solutions to more interesting problems that don't directly relate to the blockchain itself…

This isn't really a puzzle, though. A puzzle requires intellectual curiosity and creativity to solve.

This was just a race to see who could burn the most CPU/GPU cycles the fastest.

Even when a real puzzle has a monetary reward for solving it, a big component of the reward is the solving itself. For this, the reward is just money.

Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn

#114

Post by dartos »

kneel wrote: post #105
arcanemachiner wrote: post #90

Looks like the coins were stolen by a bot: > https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1306983.msg64535839#... I'm not super familiar with the concept (and I'm too lazy to look into it TBH), but I think the would-be winner posted the private key before enough (any?) blocks were mined, and the thief posted a transaction with a bigger fee, and the thief's transaction was in the block that got mined.

That's not how bitcoin works

That’s exactly how bitcoins works.

As a miner, if I see two conflicting transactions I will prioritize the one which pays more rather than the one I saw first.

Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn

#115

Post by TrackerFF »

kolinko wrote: post #100
TrackerFF wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Might sound dumb, but there are still places in the world where having $400k worth of BTC != $400k in the bank. Plenty of banks will freeze your bank account instantly. And good luck convincing them that you stumbled upon $400k by solving a puzzle - only takes one suspicious fraud/risk manager to conclude that there’s a higher chance of fraud than legitimacy. (But you are right, no problem to find someone to pay you…

Examples of such places? I did KYC/AML with multiple European banks when withdrawing crypto, and while they checked thoroughly, there were never any issues.

From personal experience, a bunch of Norwegian banks. I’ve had transactions that are equivalent to $5k trigger such events. And you get grilled.

Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn

#116

Post by ericd »

qwertox wrote: post #64
sammy2255 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if it’s 100% green energy? Is it a waste?

Probably. The energy could have been available to any energy intensive industry, helping them if the resource is too scarce and eventually lowering production prices if it wasn't scarce. You notice it in Germany where energy has become very costly in the last couple of years, where it then makes more sense to limit production or even close all together.

My impression is that transmission capacity is often the limiting factor, so you can’t really think of eg solar energy as being fully fungible. At least in the US, there are frequently multi-year delays on solar deployments because the transmission capacity to where it could be reasonably used isn’t there. The interconnection queue is extremely long in many places.

As something that’s eminently portable, I think crypto mining might actually have a use in derisking building out solar deployments, as a sort of buyer of last resort.

It might be nice to have other very portable energy sinks to eat up temporarily cheap locally available electricity. I think this might be part of the dream of the hydrogen proponents.

Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn

#117

Post by grues-dinner »

qwertox wrote: post #67
Mountain_Skies wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since energy isn't easily transported, wouldn't that really depend on where the energy was produced?

I'd argue that no other thing, apart from information, is transported as easily as electricity, once the grid exists. Sure, there are capacity limits, but I doubt that shutting down crypto mining would cause problems to the grid. I recently read that some are thinking about connecting the US with Europe via DC cabling. Here's a related, old article: "Submarine power cable between Europe and North America: A techno-ec…

I did not expect the the energy would flow so heavily to North America (24.1:3.3 TWh ratio over a year).

Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn

#118

Post by yosito »

teekert wrote: post #98
jsheard wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PoW crypto is an exercise in finding new ways to spin boiling the oceans as actually being productive.

Electricity net controllers here are pretty happy when I boil some ocean on a sunny day. In fact at times they give me money for it. And then I can donate sats to indie content creators using podcasting 2.0 features. But I think you are one of those people that threw out that baby with the bath water long ago.

Where is here for you?

Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn

#119

Post by oniony »

mapt wrote: post #74
Maken wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anyone developed a solution to integer factorization, I'm sure they would be after larger prices than mere 400k in crypto. A practical application of this puzzle could be to have an estimation of how long it takes to break a public key by conventional means. The moment one of these prices can be claimed in mere months you know it's time to double the size of the Bitcoin public keys.

If you want to prove that somebody has the ability to pick locks in order to protect your valuables, you leave the prize sitting on the kitchen table (at 66 bits of entropy) behind your relatively easy front door lock, not in a secure vault with triple redundant mechanisms. Somebody with the solution is going to be able to claim the money in far, far less computing time than they could claim a larger prize by breakin…

Except your analogy doesn't work because every single bitcoin address has the same brand of lock.

Re: Bitcoin puzzle #66 was solved: 6.6 BTC (~$400k) withdrawn

#120

Post by mistrial9 »

Powdering7082 wrote: post #86
sigmoid10 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Or whoever created the puzzles leaking their information. Or getting hacked. This is super common among people who are known to have high value wallets. Between physical attacks and zero days in everyday software, there's no chance to stay safe when you put that kind of target on your back.

> there's no chance to stay safe when you put that kind of target on your back. Vitalik Buterin seems to be a counter example here, his net worth peaked around $1.46 billion. He has some interesting writing on how he stays secure. At one point the SHIBA token sent a huge amount of funds to his cold wallet and he details what he did to securely access those funds: https://decrypt.co/91000/ethereum-founder-vitalik-bute…

Target stores were early adopters of every-shopper profiling. Target has cameras on the purchase area, and have been known to refuse cash.
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